


Fire and the Flood

by the_dala



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, M/M, Multi, OT3, Pining, Snow Day, Snowball Fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-15 22:04:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5801911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_dala/pseuds/the_dala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“It’s cold,” Finn muttered, tucking his gloved hands under his armpits.</i>
</p><p>  <i>	“But it’s pretty,” Rey said, shielding her eyes from the glare of sunshine on snow.</i></p><p>  <i>	Poe sighed and trudged in the direction of the treeline, then realized they were still huddled near the door. “Well? You wanted to see the snow, come on!”</i></p><p>Poe shares the joys of snow days with Finn and Rey, and they share something with him in return.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fire and the Flood

**Author's Note:**

> Why yes, I am stuck in the blizzard on the East Coast of the US, why do you ask? This is pure snowy fluff about my three favorite space babies.
> 
> Title from Vance Joy and it is the most Finn/Poe/Rey song ever.
> 
> Find me on tumblr: [the-dala](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/the-dala).

Poe couldn’t say he was a big fan of frozen water falling from the sky and coating everything in a cold, damp blanket of white. Even as a kid, he’d preferred family trips to the beach over the handful of occasions when they had visited a mountain cabin on the northern continent. He’d had limited experience with cold weather since. While his X-wing was built to withstand the vacuum of space, he couldn’t spend all day in orbit without an excuse, and snow made a lot of the day-to-day operations of running a clandestine rebel base just a bit more difficult. When the Resistance relocated to an abandoned moon in the Metellos system, he would’ve been perfectly happy to spend the first snowstorm of its winter cycle indoors.

“It’s snowing,” Rey said, perched by the large window in the gallery they were adapting as a mess hall.

“Yeah, weather monitors said a storm might be coming.” Finn swiped the last tuber off of Poe’s plate, dragging it through the puddle of gravy and dodging a half-hearted stab from Poe’s fork.

She pressed her nose to the warped old glass, looking surprised to find it so chilled. Her hazel eyes were wide with fascination. “I’ve never seen snow before.”

“It was snowing on Starkiller," Poe pointed out. Finn made a face at the reminder.

Rey shook her head absently, still staring out at the flurries. “We were a bit distracted at the time. I dream about it sometimes, though.” Poe could feel Finn go tense at his side, and reached out to touch the back of his hand. Rey glanced over at them and clarified, “Not always bad dreams.” 

At her half-smile he relaxed, turning his hand over to squeeze Poe’s fingers. 

“It’s so quiet,” she mused, propping her chin on her hand. “Storms in the desert could be deafening. I used to wear my old fighter helmet just to drown out the howling of the wind and the sand.”

Poe let his hand linger in Finn’s for a few seconds before withdrawing. He’d assumed all these little touches and reassurances would end once Rey got back, given that she and Finn were...whatever it was they were now. Poe wasn’t actually quite sure, and he hadn’t yet dared to ask. But Finn didn’t lean on his shoulder or pull him into a hug any less often, and Rey didn’t object; in fact she was usually right there with him. Which was not at all confusing. 

Perhaps it was some twinge of guilt that prompted him to say, “You want to go check it out?”

“Can we?” It was like a kick in the gut when she turned those big eyes on him, her face lighting up.

Poe peered out the window; the flakes were sticking to the ground and falling faster by the minute. Last he’d heard it was supposed to stop around midnight, which should leave them with a good half-meter or so.

“Sun’s going down, so maybe we’d better wait until morning. Can you skip out on your very important super-awesome-kickass Jedi school for a couple of hours?”

She raised an eyebrow at him and stole the cookie from his tray. Damn these half-starved orphans and their quick fingers. “I’ll just suggest we hold training outside. Luke hates the cold. I’ve already gotten a long lecture about all the things that went wrong on the Hoth base.”

“The general talks about it too. Doesn’t sound like it was a whole lot of fun.” Finn seemed far less enthused than Rey, but Poe didn’t doubt for a second he would turn up at her side tomorrow. They parted soon after, agreeing to meet up in the morning for a walk in the cold stuff. 

Of course, when Poe said ‘morning,’ he was pretty sure he had not imbued it with the subtext of ‘please knock on my door at 0630.’

“The sun hasn’t even risen yet,” he groaned, scrubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand.

Rey beamed at him. “It will be by the time we get geared up.” She was already wearing all the layers she owned, and for some reason had her staff strapped to her back.

Finn wandered up behind her, yawning, Poe’s mended jacket slung over his shoulders. “Please can we get caf first, please.”

After arming themselves with hot life-sustaining caffeine, rummaging through the base’s supply of snow gear until they found things that fit, and struggling into them (Rey put her overalls on backwards and insisted they made more sense that way; Finn spent ten minutes choosing a hat), it was actually approaching a decent hour. Poe led them past the maintenance droids clearing out the doorways and outside. He’d underestimated the total snowfall; it nearly reached his knees, and there were still a few flakes drifting down from the bleached sky.

“It’s _cold_ ,” Finn muttered, tucking his gloved hands under his armpits.

“But it’s pretty,” Rey said, shielding her eyes from the glare of sunshine on snow.

Poe sighed and trudged in the direction of the treeline, then realized they were still huddled near the door. “Well? You wanted to see the snow, come on!”

Finn and Rey blinked at him from beneath their insulated hoods.

“What do we do?” she asked in a small voice.

Poe opened his mouth and then closed it, reconsidering. Finn had grown up in military service with every exercise turned into a drill, every game into strategy, every moment of connection with his fellow cadets countered by the message that their only loyalty was to the Order. Rey didn’t talk much about her own childhood, but he knew she’d spent most her time fighting to survive on an unforgiving world. She had been alone and Finn had been surrounded by fellow soldiers; Poe was suddenly realizing that meant they’d never really developed playground skills.

He then realized he was going to have to stop thinking about it, because he didn’t need his eyelashes freezing if he was going to teach them how to play in the snow.

“Okay,” he said, rubbing his hands together, “we’ll probably need some supplies, but for now we can start with this.” And he fell back into a likely-looking snowdrift.

They shouted his name in perfect unison and were kneeling at his side in an instant, worry creasing their faces. Their beautiful, young, stupid faces.

“Get back,” he said, shooing them, “you’re going to spoil it.” 

Clearly mystified, Finn and Rey watched him sweep his arms and legs back and forth.

“ _What_ are you doing?” Finn looked like he was thinking of running for a med tech.

Poe sat up and patted the design he’d made. “Snow angels.”

Rey cocked her head, squinting. “If you moved your legs a little, it could be an X-wing.”

“Try it,” Poe said with a grin, which she returned as she dropped down beside him.

Finn still looked skeptical. “I bet you can’t figure out how to make a TIE fighter,” Poe told him loftily.

“I bet you’re wrong.” He adjusted the zipper at his throat before settling on his knees to figure it out. Using Rey’s staff was technically cheating, but Poe decided to let it go.

They etched out the _Falcon_ , an A-wing, and a Lambda-class shuttle before Poe convinced them to move on to snowpeople. He demonstrated with a basic one-two snowball form, adorning it with his hat and a pair of goggles buried in the pocket of his coat. Rey immediately set to work on a snow-Wookiee, while Finn made Poe run through a list of potential snowperson options before deciding he’d rather lend a hand in constructing an accurate bowcaster (though not before reshaping the head of the sample snowperson to make it look like BB-8). Poe’s ears were freezing without his hat but he ignored the burn, digging about in the cleared ground near the base for a branch to scrape out a fur design. Rey plucked a couple of buttons off her boots for eyes. When it was finished they sat back on their heels to admire their work.

“It looks just like Chewie,” Rey declared, throwing an arm over Poe’s shoulders. Her cheeks and nose were red with cold, snowflakes were caught in her hair, and Poe was definitely not thinking about how much he wanted to kiss her.

“We’ll have to take a holo before it melts,” he said, looking over at Finn, which didn’t help his focus in the least because Finn’s eyes were dancing and he was smiling that big, bright smile that Poe was sure must have been visible through his helmet.

“So what’s next, hotshot?” He reached out to ruffle Poe’s hair, sprinkling snow and laughing at Poe’s glare.

Poe pressed a thumb to his chin and pretended to think it over. What he was actually thinking was more along the lines of _I am in so much fucking trouble_.

“Remember what I said about supplies? I might need your help on this one...”

Hod Ghrellow, the grizzled Er’Kit who ran the kitchens, had his hands more than full organizing their supplies into some semblance of order. No way Poe would’ve been able to wheedle anything out of him alone, but it was well known that he had a soft spot for Rey, who had hunted him down her first day on base to say how much she had enjoyed her porridge (which probably had more to do with the dried fruit and chopped nuts Finn added than Hod's cooking, but Poe kept that to himself). He even threw in a few fresh rolls when he saw her rubbing her hands together to warm them, though he only grunted in response to their thanks.

There were no suitable rises on that side of the building so they had to skirt around, which put them in full view of the hangar bay. Poe might have been embarrassed if he hadn’t been busy being charmed by Rey’s delighted shriek as she shot down the hill. Apparently she’d done something similar on the dunes of Jakku, but she said the snow was a much faster surface. Finn’s tray spun around and he went down backwards, tumbling ass over teakettle when he hit the bottom. Poe had to bank hard to the right to avoid plowing into him.

“You used the Force on me, didn’t you?” he accused her as they hiked back back up, trays under their arms.

Rey stuck out her tongue. “It’s not my fault you’re clumsy. Poe, will you race me?”

“Only if you promise not to cheat,” he said, and she drew a hand over her heart, insulted. They flopped down on their stomachs, waiting for Finn to count. Poe shoved off hard but she still beat him by a length.

By then they’d attracted a few onlookers and some bundled-up kids were scampering toward the hill. There weren’t many children on base for fairly obvious reasons, but they were all pretty scrappy and Poe liked them. He introduced Snap’s twin hellions to his companions. Pol immediately took a shine to Finn and begged to slide down with him. 

“Sure,” said Finn, leaning down to stage-whisper, “I bet we can kick Commander Dameron’s butt.”

It surprised Poe a little that he turned out to be good with kids; it did not surprise him at all that Rey edged away from them like they might bite (not actually an unreasonable assumption with the Wexley twins).

“You’re on,” he said, pointing at them. He leaned forward on his knees and tipped his chin at Pol’s sister Brena. “C’mon, I’m outweighed here.” She shot him a wolfish grin and jumped on behind him. Finn’s makeshift sled skittered just a bit further across the smooth lanes they’d worn into the snow, which led to a silent but furious scuffle between the siblings. 

Just as Finn was about to wade in (and likely earn a split lip for his trouble), Snap appeared to yank them apart by their collars. 

“Corners, guys, or I’m telling your dad.”

“But Pop, he started it!”

Pol took this dismissal with more grace, peeling off to whisper something in Finn’s ear. He dusted snow off his pants and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Can anyone tell me how to properly conduct a snowball fight?”

Poe and Snap regarded each other for a long moment: flight commander to squadron captain, aged thirty-two and and thirty-nine respectively.

“Snow’s pretty wet, it’ll pack well,” Poe pointed out.

Snap hoisted his struggling daughter over his shoulder. “We’ll need forts first.”

“Teams?”

“I call Finn,” Snap said quickly, which made both Finn and Pol puff up like bower-pigeons.

Poe spotted Rey picking her way down the slope. “Fine, then I get Rey.”

“No using the Force!” Snap protested, clapping his hand over Brena's legs so she couldn’t kick him in the jaw.

Poe spread his arms wide. “Of course not!” Never mind that _he_ couldn’t Force-cheat, and he wasn’t about to make Rey swear to it.

They spent nearly an hour building up their defenses and planning strategies. Poe gained a few grown-ups who had decided they weren’t so grown this morning, including Jess and X’can from Comms, whose four arms would come in handy. But he nearly fell into the bulwark he was shaping when Luke Skywalker came striding into Blackfire Sparkle Squadron Base (name courtesy of Brena).

“Okay, what’s the plan?” he said, gathering up his cloak and kneeling down next to Rey. She nodded crisply and began to sketch out their attack plan in the snow.

Catching Poe gaping at him, he winked. “You think this is my first frozen dogfight, Commander?”

“No, sir,” he replied, snapping his jaw shut.

“Leia’s on the other side and I’m sure she’s pulled rank, so you’d better step up your game.”

Poe pursed his lips at their stockpile of snowballs. “We’re gonna need more ammo.”

The battle raged well into the afternoon. There were war councils, double agents, temporary cease-fires, spies caught and then ransomed (Poe traded three supply runs to get Luke back after he was ambushed by all four Wexleys). General Organa had to relinquish command when some actual work came up, though at least they got to bean C-3PO with missiles when he came out to fetch her.

Rey became distracted not long after that, glancing into the woods at their backs.

“I could swear I felt…” Her brow wrinkled in concentration. 

Luke, who had been demoted to guard duty after his recklessness got him captured, folded his hands on his knee. “Did you sense something?”

“Some kind of animal, I think? But not hostile.”

He smiled and offered her a hand up. “Let’s see if we can track it. With your leave, of course,” he amended, offering Poe a salute. He waved his hand in dismissal. Rey grinned and leaned down to clasp his shoulder.

“Don’t let Finn take the base, he’ll never shut up about it.” She gave him a quick peck, her lips warm on his cheek, and crept toward the trees behind Skywalker, keeping low so as not to present a target. 

Jess and Poe were left to hold down the fort, the rest of their army having gone scouting or been called in to lunch. She glanced after Rey with a speculative gleam in her eye. 

“Whatever you’re about to say, don’t,” Poe warned her.

Jess stretched her legs, hefting a snowball in one hand. “I wasn’t going to say anything, Dameron. Except that this was both incredibly dumb and a hell of a lot of fun. For my final act as your second, I’m going to let you in on a secret.” She leaned in close, flicking him on the nose. “South hall off the main corridor, four doors down on the left. Don’t spread it around.”

He frowned at her self-satisfied expression. “What are you-”

But she was off, and she liberated a couple of his fighters on her way out so he couldn’t complain about her desertion later.

Poe was just about to call his troops in for a final assault when a flash in the distance caught his eye. He pressed his face up to the tiny window in the packed-snow wall (Jess had called it an arrow loop, because she read too much historical fiction). 

He didn’t see anything, but he did get a mouthful of snow as something grabbed him from behind.

“Surrender, Sparkle-scum!” Finn’s voice was right at his ear and he had his legs locked around Poe’s.

“Never,” Poe hissed, flailing around until he could get one arm free and twist to face his attacker. They wrestled for control, neither of them above fighting dirty. Poe finally managed to pin him down by reaching under his bedraggled coat to tickle his ribs.

Finn laughed and squirmed beneath his fingers. “Okay, okay, I give,” he gasped.

He went very still and so did Poe, upon realizing he had his knees planted on either side of Finn’s hips. His breath puffed into the air, against Finn’s face, and Poe could feel his warmth soaking through their many layers. It made him think of the stolen TIE, of being reassured by Finn’s solid presence at his back even as they dodged and spun through enemy fire. He had met Finn first, he’d named him -

“Hi,” Finn whispered. His hand came up to touch Poe’s cheek, the gloves long since discarded. Somehow he managed to land in exactly the same spot as Rey had.

Poe kissed him, the heat of his mouth a shock to his system after spending so long in the cold. Finn pushed up against him but gripped the back of his neck, so he didn’t seem to be - _oh_. Not so many layers, after all.

Just then something exploded over their heads. Poe started, rolling over onto an elbow.

“Where the kriff did they get a flare gun?” Finn said, sounding exasperated. 

Poe scrambled to his feet, his face burning. Whoever shot that flare should be entitled to a promotion.

Finn sat up, biting his lip. “Look, Poe -”

“Flag’s right there - you won it fair and square,” Poe said, his voice strained and just a bit too low. “We’d better go shake hands.” 

He thought he did a pretty good job covering up for the extreme weirdness of what had just happened. Finn, at least, did not seem to be affected; he boasted about his snow-fort domination until Rey whapped him on the arm (and then did the same to Poe, since he’d lost their base). The warriors dispersed to their regularly scheduled duties, some of them under protest; Pol had to be pried off Finn’s leg and Brena insisted on teaching Rey some complicated handshake that all the base kids used. She was still practicing it on the slog back to the mess. 

Poe ducked out, asking them to save him a seat. He wanted to check out Jess’ secret room, and honestly he could use a little break. He’d kissed Finn without understanding what boundaries he was crossing; worse, Finn had kissed him back; and worse still, he was fairly certain he would have also kissed Rey under the same circumstances (although he probably would’ve been the one pinned in that scenario). That wasn’t even touching on the age difference or the Jedi thing or any number of other reasons he should be kicking himself.

South hall, four down on the left - the door stuck at first, but opened with a little shoving. Poe peered into the dim room and let out a frustrated huff. He’d just have to keep pretending today, because he wasn’t going to let them miss out on this.

“Where are we going?” Rey wanted to know, still munching on the roll she’d snatched from the food line on the way out. Finn was juggling three mugs and nearly ran smack into Poe when he stopped at the door. He swung it open with a bow.

They stepped inside and turned their faces to the far wall.

“Oh, it’s _warm_ ,” Finn sighed, closing his eyes.

Rey dropped onto on a cushion in front of the stone fireplace. “That feels amazing,” she said in wonder, gazing down at her hands, which had been shaking slightly. They’d taken off most of their wet things when they came back inside, but had still been left damp and chilled (food being considered more pressing than a change of clothes).

Poe put the pitcher he’d been carrying down on the rug and gestured to Finn. He carefully filled each mug and handed them out. 

“You’ll love it, I promise,” he said off of Rey’s suspicious look.

“Is it like caf?”

He chuckled; Finn drank his caf black, as did most everyone on base, but Rey wouldn’t touch it without dumping a mountain of cream and sugar in. “Better. It’s called hot chocolate.”

She took a tentative sip and her eyes went round as saucers.

“Wow,” Finn said in appreciation, gazing down at his cup. He sat beside her, leaning back on his free arm.

“Yep.” Poe dragged a chair up to the fire and shook his damp curls out. Rey was fussing with her hair too, combing it with her fingers. She swore when she hit a snarl and Finn reached over to help, smoothing it behind her ears with patient fingers. She sighed in contentment and leaned back against him.

A prickle crept up the back of Poe’s neck. He should leave this cozy, romantic spot to them; there were few enough opportunities around here, and he’d intruded enough for one day.

But before he could speak, Finn got up, stretching his back. “Gotta go to the ‘fresher,” he announced, heading for the door. “Don’t drink my hot chocolate.” Rey, who had in fact been eyeing it, drummed her fingers on her own mug.

“This is very nice,” she said. “Thank you for sharing it with us, Poe.”

She smiled at him with simple affection and gratitude, her face flushed from the heat of the fire.

“I kissed Finn,” he said. 

Rey drew her knees up. Her expression hadn’t changed, hadn’t acknowledged the guilt and longing twisting his insides into knots.

“I know. He told me.” She folded an arm about her legs and sipped at her chocolate. “I gather I’m supposed to be upset,” she said, “and I might be if he’d kissed anyone else, and vice versa. But it’s different with you.”

“Why?” he asked, a bit panicky, feeling like he’d missed something important. He was a pilot and a damned good one; he was supposed to see things coming. “Why is it different?”

She set her mug down and moved over to his chair. Poe’s breath came quicker with each step she took, stuttering when she knelt before him. 

“Because you belong to us,” she murmured, hooking her fingers in his shirt and pulling him forward until their heads were bent together. “And I’d like to kiss you now, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Rey, I…”

His brain abruptly caught up, blaring an alarm, but by then she was already kissing him. She was a little more sure of herself than Finn, a little bolder; then again she wasn’t hunkered down in a pile of snow, fighting for the high ground. He didn’t hear the click of the door or Finn’s quiet footsteps, and only became aware when his shadow crossed the fireplace. 

Poe leaned back, still fixated on the idea that he was going to have to talk his way out of this one, and found that Rey was curled in his lap and his arms were locked around her. When had that happened?

Finn was smiling down at them, firelight flickering in his dark eyes.

“Look, it’s snowing again,” he said, his voice as hushed as the drift outside the window. He lowered himself to the ground, pressing back against Poe’s legs. Rey let her arm fall and he kissed her fingers. He slipped his hand beneath the hem of Poe’s trouser leg, loosely holding on like an anchor.

Rey turned her head into his shoulder to watch the new snow falling. Finn gazed into the crackling fire, his thumb stroking slowly over Poe’s ankle. And Poe closed his eyes, feeling the warmth sink into his skin, letting the quiet settle over him.

**Author's Note:**

> As far as I'm concerned, hot chocolate in the SW universe is still canon until proven otherwise.


End file.
